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'School Council' in Eustacia
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Author:  Sunglass [ Sun Feb 01, 2009 7:51 pm ]
Post subject:  'School Council' in Eustacia
In Eustacia, after Eustacia has smacked Kitty Burnett's face, Mary Burnett calls 'School Council' for the following day, and the entire school attends a meeting during Break to discuss what to do with her. For some reason, this only struck me as unusual on this reading. By the way 'School Council' is capitalised, and there's no reference to this being a novelty, it seems EBD intends us to think that this isn't its first meeting, yet I can't think of any other instance, before or after, where the entire CS meets to discuss a disciplinary/welfare situation, far less any kind of official forum existing ..? (It's quite un-CS, too - reminds me more of the 'progressive' co-ed Enid Blyton school, Whyteleafe, which is governed by its pupils - normally, the CS is quite hierarchical, with the staff above the prefects, prefects above the form prefects, and so on.)

Does the 'School Council' ever meet at any other point? Why is the entire school called in and asked for suggestions in Eustacia's case, rather than the prefects dealing with it? (I realise the school is still small at this point, but it seems strange to bring in younger girls, and those who weren't present at the incident, thereby drawing attention to it, and giving demon Middles the bad example of her 'Bolshevist' behaviour!) Also, we're specifically told that this meeting is kept from the staff, who know nothing about it (no explanation as to how the entire school can disappear during break without anyone wondering!), which is also unusual, isn't it? (It's not that the prefects are trying to deal with Eustacia themselves, because the staff know exactly what Eustacia has been doing, and they have already 'officially' punished her themselves.)

Is this just an experiment that EBD forgot about, or decided was unworkable as the CS grew?
Author:  Liz K [ Sun Feb 01, 2009 8:25 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: 'School Council' in Eustacia
It's the only time I can think of "School Council" being called to deal with something, can't remember it being called for anything else. :dontknow:
Author:  Pat [ Sun Feb 01, 2009 8:51 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: 'School Council' in Eustacia
Nor can I. And the ideas they came up with didn't work either, did they?
Author:  MJKB [ Sun Feb 01, 2009 9:11 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: 'School Council' in Eustacia
I suppose you could say they had them on an informal basis in School At whenever they thought of a new idea for the school.
Speaking of the reason for the School Council in Eustacia, I remember being more shocked at her disparagement of the little girl - Gretchen, I think her name was, than at her smacking the ever youthful Kitty. I know Joey castigated her for the way she spoke about the child but it seemed to end at that. To me, Eustacia's utter cold contempt for the life of a fellow human being, and a child at that, was more indicative of a warped nature than a quick flash of temper that results in a sharp smack. .
Author:  Sunglass [ Sun Feb 01, 2009 10:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: 'School Council' in Eustacia
MJKB wrote:
Speaking of the reason for the School Council in Eustacia, I remember being more shocked at her disparagement of the little girl - Gretchen, I think her name was, than at her smacking the ever youthful Kitty... To me, Eustacia's utter cold contempt for the life of a fellow human being, and a child at that, was more indicative of a warped nature than a quick flash of temper that results in a sharp smack. .


Not that whacking the Head Girl's baby sister is all that good a move in your first week at school - though it's instructive to compare the response from both girls and staff to later reactions to Margot's book-end hurling!

Yes, her disparagement of the importance of the life of a 'mere peasant child' is shocking - it's much the most unpleasant personal opinion expressed by any CS girl, including Thekla von Stift's colossal snobbery. I think we're supposed to intuit she's echoing her parents, probably her dead mother the doctor (about whom I always wonder - does EBD mean she continued to practice medicine after marriage and a child, and does this in part explain Eustacia's awfulness in EBD's eyes, as well as both parents' theories of child-rearing?)

Being devil's advocate, though - and I do have a sneaking sympathy for Eustacia, both because she's very recently lost both parents, and never gets much sympathy, and if I'd been at the CS myself , I would have been continually sneaking off to read in peace! - I have to say that she has a kind of scientifically-valid point about the likelihood of Gredel being ill again as soon as she is returned home, even if she's cured at the San. Less to do with what Eustacia insufferably terms 'such people' 's notions of hygiene, but because more than one of her family were likely to also have TB - and of course, there's the possibility of infected milk. Not that it excuses her indifference in the slightest.
Author:  Alison H [ Sun Feb 01, 2009 11:10 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: 'School Council' in Eustacia
I don't think that a School Council was ever mentioned before or after.

I don't really like the idea of the whole school holding a meeting about one girl, however unpleasantly she might have been behaving: it reminds me of those horrible girls at St Clare's doing things like hiding Mirabel's books and then all smirking when she got into trouble with the teachers :shock: . I'm sure the CS girls wouldn't have done anything like that, but the thought of the whole lot of them discussing how to "deal with" one person is still rather disconcerting.
Author:  JB [ Mon Feb 02, 2009 8:57 am ]
Post subject:  Re: 'School Council' in Eustacia
I think this was such an unpleasant way to "deal with" Eustacia. How could she have avoided knowing what was going on and feeling much worse afterwards? I think it was wrong to involve younger girls and it was underhand to do this without the staff knowing. I can't see Madmoiselle LePattre approving.

I mind this much more know than when I read this as a child. I do have a lot of sympathy for Eustacia. She didn't receive any of the understanding that problem girls do in later books.
Author:  Alison H [ Mon Feb 02, 2009 9:09 am ]
Post subject:  Re: 'School Council' in Eustacia
The poor girl lost both her parents and her home, and was then made to feel unwanted by her aunt who sent her away to a strange place. Then, when she ran away, Bill said that it was because she was upset that Joey didn't want to be friends with her!! I feel really sorry for both Joey and Eustacia over that.
Author:  Selena [ Mon Feb 02, 2009 10:17 am ]
Post subject:  Re: 'School Council' in Eustacia
Sunglass wrote:
Being devil's advocate, though - and I do have a sneaking sympathy for Eustacia, both because she's very recently lost both parents, and never gets much sympathy, and if I'd been at the CS myself , I would have been continually sneaking off to read in peace!


I always thought it was very mean of the prefects to ban her from the library for a whole half-term because she swiped Joey's keys. I can understand Joey's point of view about being responsible for the keys, but even so it seems a bit excessive. Eustacia must have really felt the whole world was against her at that point, and that would not encourage her to make an effort to get on with the other girls and fit in. I expect it would make her feel more like "why bother trying?".
Author:  Róisín [ Mon Feb 02, 2009 12:35 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: 'School Council' in Eustacia
I wonder had EBD recently been reading The Farm School books.
Author:  MJKB [ Mon Feb 02, 2009 10:24 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: 'School Council' in Eustacia
Sunglass says:
Being devil's advocate, though - and I do have a sneaking sympathy for Eustacia, both because she's very recently lost both parents, and never gets much sympathy, and if I'd been at the CS myself , I would have been continually sneaking off to read in peace!"
Absolutely! There did not seem to be one iota of sympathy for this emotionally damaged orphan child, which was quite unusual for the CS, especially during this period of the series. Haing said that, it would have been difficult for anyone, staff or student, to empathise with her. No one likes an elderly child, and Eustacia is a particularly thorny elderly child.
Nevertheless, her somewhat onorthodox method of accessing the library was hardly sufficiently venal to merit such a wholesale punishment. Reading was the only real pleasure she had left and to take it away from her was the height of cruelty. The school authorities could have used Eustacia's love for literature to get through to her emotionally.
Actually, the more I think of Eustacia's loved starved youth, the loss of her parents and home and her final abandonment by her aunt the more I am convinced by Sunglass's analysis of the situation. It still shocks me to think that a teenage girl could espouse such opinions about a sick peasant child in such a cold and deliberate way, but one could excuse her on the grounds of her up bringing.
Author:  Emma A [ Tue Feb 03, 2009 1:38 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: 'School Council' in Eustacia
EBD seemed to have concocted a few innovations in some of the Tyrol books which were only mentioned once and never again - pets, for example, in Exploits. I certainly don't remember a similar meeting to discuss what to do about Thekla, or Cornelia, even in the early years.

Perhaps EBD had planned to write in a later book the reasons why the School Council had been abolished, but forgot, or it was edited out. It certainly doesn't seem a useful institution, and I think EBD used it to point the fact that Eustacia's behaviour was affecting everyone.
Author:  Lisa [ Tue Feb 03, 2009 4:02 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: 'School Council' in Eustacia
Emma A wrote:
Perhaps EBD had planned to write in a later book the reasons why the School Council had been abolished, but forgot


I simply can't believe that EBD would ever forget anything ... :wink:
Author:  Pado [ Wed Feb 04, 2009 12:58 am ]
Post subject:  Re: 'School Council' in Eustacia
Quote:
I always thought it was very mean of the prefects to ban her from the library for a whole half-term because she swiped Joey's keys. I can understand Joey's point of view about being responsible for the keys, but even so it seems a bit excessive


That's always been my response as well. I only have the pb, though, so perhaps the hb has more of a balanced view of things?
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